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Band Members
Pierre Bouvier - Vocals
Chuck Comeau - Drums, Backing vocals
David Desrosiers - Bass, Backing Vocals
Sebastien Lefebvre - Guitar, Backing Vocals
Jeff Stinco - Lead Guitar
Tracklisting
1. When I'm Gone
2. Take My Hand
3. End
4. Your Love Is A Lie
5. Save You
6. Generation
7. Time To Say Goodbye
8. I Can Wait Forever
9. Holding On
10. No Love
11. What If
Simple Plan's third studio album starts off brilliantly, with 'When I'm Gone' which has the sort of anthem-like chorus that virtually demands you sing along, despite some mildly cringe-worthy lyrics. This album-opener is pop-punk at its best, crammed full of hooks and big choruses, and polished to within an inch of its life. However, look beneath the surface and there is something surprising going on. 'When I'm Gone' is laced with subtle experimental elements, with electro loops and slick RnB style breakdown sections that promise this album will head in directions previously unexplored by the pop-punk five-piece.
In some respects, Simple Plan make good on this promise. 'Generation' features an electro loop reminiscent of Europe's 'The Final Countdown,' set against an RnB groove that builds into a surprisingly heavy chorus. 'The End' takes the RnB style vocals a step further, as vocalist Pierre Bouvier does his best impression of Justin Timberlake, before Simple Plan mimic recent chart-botherers Hellogoodbye with the electro-pop of 'Take My Hand.' It all works much better than you'd expect, and it's these handful of songs that give the album the variety that bands like this now need just to ensure they stand out in an already overcrowded scene.
The thing that is really impressive, is that Simple Plan have managed to retain everything that made them appeal in the first place, whilst adding just the right amount of experimental flourishes to ensure a wider audience will sit up and pay attention, rather than write them off as just another pop-punk act. The result is something surprising, but essentially familiar.
But it's not all good. While the first half of the album is full of big choruses and addictive hooks, the second half is bogged down with some pretty standard ballads. It's here, without the pop-punk backing track, that you begin to realise just how generic Simple Plan's lyrics are. The second half is dominated by unconvincing love songs, which are too generalised to tug at the heart strings, and have none of the musical hooks of Simple Plan's more upbeat material. 'Save you,' 'I Can Wait Forever,' and 'No Love' are all vague ballads that leave you wondering whether any real feeling went into them at all.
Things do get back on track, as the album ends with the excellent 'What If,' the chorus of which borders on the meaningless, but manages to sound boundlessly optimistic whilst doing so, and it's impossible not to get caught up in their enthusiasm. 'What If' proves that it's much easier to ignore Simple Plan's vague lyrics when they're set against a backdrop of addictive guitars and hooks you won't be able to get out of your head for days.
As albums of this genre go, Simple Plan have produced one of the better ones, retaining all the things that made this genre popular in the first place, whilst slickly blending in some of the unexpected to ensure this offering stands out from the million similar acts currently being touted as the next big thing in the pop-punk scene. Whereas the second half of this album is diluted by too many numb ballads, the first half is irresistibly good fun, and occasionally surprising, as Simple Plan reveal a desire to move in new directions that, hopefully, we'll see more of on their future releases.
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